It's hard when Olympic champions continue skating, because they feel that they should always be at the top of the heap, but other skaters may be ready to challenge them.

A good observation. The Protpopovs had to deal with the rise of challengers at home in both Rodnina and Ulanov and Moskvina and Mishin. Suddenly in the course of one season, they were behind two teams of their own countrymen, in part because technical standards rapidly changed to emphasize more difficulty. They stayed in for a bit longer, but eventually defected and sought more freedom. Similarly, Linichuk and Karponosov had a rather rapid rise and fall as the world's best ice dancers. They were the third or second best Soviets for years and suddenly rose to world champs once Moiseeva and Minenkov's attempts at less traditional ice dance were rejected. They held on just long enough to win the Olympics a couple of years later with the more exciting Hungarians, Regoczy and Sallay hot on their tails. The lost world to them a month later then stayed in the next season only to fall behind Min and Mo and more importantly the rapidly rising upstart Torvill and Dean at Euros. That was the it. They retired, started a family and moved on.

I'm not saying that will happen to V/M by any stretch. But as you say, it is very hard for reigning Olympic champs to hang on in the face of injury, boredom, rising challengers, or lucrative opportunities. Still I think they will find extra motivation from this loss. A similar loss for D/W in 2009 and also 2010 spurred them on to their current streak.

they had a FALL in the SD....no way he deserved to win and he makes himself a joke to pretend otherwise.

Thanks a lot for your valuable input. I think Scott is talking about the FS. But who cares, D/W is so out of world, they are the star, the moon, the sun, the universe, lol. Nobody can beat them ever again. Your break is given now.